Warcraft Wizardry
by Kiera27
Summary: At age four Harry knew more then most about the way that the world worked until Dudley brought home a game that would change the way that they both looked at the world.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or World of Warcraft.**

**This is one of rapid plot bunnies that I kept locked up too long.**

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Harry knew many things about the way the world worked by age four. He knew that he was not loved like the other children he saw play outside with smiles on their faces. He knew that he was considered to be a burden despite the fact that he already took care of most of the chores on the inside of the house and quite a few on the outside that he was big enough for. He knew that the way that he was treated; the yelling, the punches, the lack of food and the small cupboard that he slept in were not right. He also knew that no one cared about the scrawny whelp that lived in number 4 Privet Drive, he was invisible to everyone and he liked it better that way.

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"Boy! Get your lazy arse out of bed and fix breakfast up before my Diddiums starves to death!" Aunt Petunia's shrill voice woke him up as it did almost every morning. He sighed as he rolled on his side and put his new glasses on. The Dursleys had not been happy that they had had to spend money on him when the lady at the daycare they had left him in when they visited Aunt Marge took him to an eye doctor when she noticed that he squinted all the time. They couldn't get out of buying him glasses without looking bad, and they would not stand for that, needless to say he would probably never get left at a daycare again; he would either get taken along or left behind in the house.

He made breakfast almost mechanically, he had been doing it for almost six months and they always had the same breakfast, eggs, bacon, sausage, and flapjacks with gobs of syrup. After he was done he was given his breakfast, a slice of bread, a halfway rotten apple and a glass of water. He waited to the side so that he could refill their glasses before they got empty. It took almost an hour for them all to finish, Petunia didn't eat much but she drank a lot of coffee in the morning. He cleaned the table off and hurriedly did the dishes while his relatives got ready for the day, they were going to go to the mall today and probably spend a lot of money on things that Dudley would break within a week.

Before they headed out of the door he was given a list of chores that had to be done by the time that they go home and a solid smack to the back of his head that almost sent his glasses to the floor. He regained his senses from the smack after they left and quickly set to work, the list was long and he had no idea how long it would take for them to buy enough to keep Dudley happy for a couple days. He mopped, dusted, organized and polished the entire house, he was exhausted but everything was done.

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Dudley watched his parents cater to his every demand with calculating eyes, he may not be very book smart but he knew enough to know that his parents were not good people. The way Harry was treated was very wrong. He really liked Harry, he was smart but he didn't make Dudley feel stupid, but he knew that if his parents saw Harry helping him with anything without ordering him to do it first they would punish him for trying to corrupt him. Maybe he could use their desire to make him happy to get them to be nicer to Harry, even if they didn't mean it. He could always make it look like he needed Harry's help on a new game and gradually warm them up to the idea of Harry being his playmate instead of just a burden they didn't want.

He kept his eyes open in the computer game store because he knew that a lot of them were filled with things that you had to read to go farther in the game and he would need help, help that neither of his parents would have the desire to give, they hated his computer games. He found what he was looking for in a display near the counter, World of Warcraft, they had all the expansion packs laid out together, it was perfect. He knew enough to know that he would need Harry's help almost constantly, it would ensure that Harry would be able to stay out of the cupboard for most of the day, and he might even be able to get him fed more often, after all he would need his playing partner.

As soon as he told his parents what he wanted they tried to tell him that he wouldn't like it because he would have to do a lot of reading, which is what he wanted. He slowly worked them around to the fact that Harry was more then able to read and would be perfect for playing the game, he made it seem like it was all their idea and he was just agreeing with them. He left the store with all of the game clutched to his chest with a strong sense of pride in his chest, he may not be a genius, but he knew how to get what he wanted from his parents.

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Harry was surprised when his uncle immediately grabbed him when they got home and led him up the stairs with Dudley following only to drag him into Dudley's room and almost throw him onto the floor. "Listen here boy! Dudley has a new game that you are going to help him with whenever he wants you to. Helping him is your new main chore, you will still do the cleaning but not the other things until Dudley doesn't need your help anymore, do you understand?"

Harry nodded quickly, he knew better then to question his uncle, nothing good ever came of that. "Yes sir." Vernon nodded, satisfied. He stalked out of the room and both boys could hear him thunder down the stairs.

Dudley looked at his cousin just sitting on the floor of his room, he hoped that his plan worked, Harry was so very small and delicate, there was no way he would be able to survive in this house very much longer. "I need you to help me put this game on my computer and help me play it." He tried to make it sound like he didn't care if Harry wanted to or not, otherwise he knew that Harry would get suspicious.

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	2. The Incident

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or World of Warcraft.**

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Harry sighed deeply as he hulled himself off of the floor. At least this way he wouldn't have to do the outside chores, he still had to do the inside chores as well as help Dudley with whatever new game he had gotten his parents to buy until he got bored with it but its better then nothing. He moved over to the desk and picked up the game boxes to figure out how he was supposed to install it and set to work without saying a word, he wasn't supposed to talk. He made sure to install them in the right order with Dudley putting in the necessary credit card information, somehow Harry wasn't surprised that he knew it. He installed the second and third installments fairly quickly as well, Dudley had whined until they had bought him a top of the line gaming computer last month after he had broken the console they had bought him, so it was hardly any trouble at all.

The first part was the character creation and as soon as Dudley saw how many different kinds of characters he had to choose from he insisted on having one of each race, class and gender. By the time that Harry got done with it all it was already time for him to make dinner and they hadn't even started actually playing the game yet.

Dinner was a stressed affair as Dudley spent most of it telling his parents about the game so far which of course included telling them about Harry's involvement. They listened intently as they both tried to ignore the parts with Harry in it as well as the boy himself from his place in the corner of the room waiting for them to finish so he could eat what was left and clean up.

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_**A couple of weeks later…**_

The next couple of weeks passed with Dudley gradually increasing the amount of time that he told his parents that he 'needed' Harry to help him with his game until it became the only thing other then meals that he was responsible for, as Petunia simply could not cook. It was after the first week that Dudley managed to talk his parents into letting Harry eat his meals with them, he got less then they did but it was more then he got before. The only thing that Dudley hadn't expected was that he was really starting to enjoy World of Warcraft with Harry, it was the highlight of his day.

Each day Dudley would try to get Harry to open up just a little bit more then he had the day before and they would now have conversations whenever they had to wait for something to load, like a patch, or when the character was flying or on a ship. They managed to excel at the game as well, though neither of them were very good at working in a group and tended to stay away from raids and guilds that focused on it.

Petunia was highly unhappy with the fact that her precious Dudley was spending so much time with the little freak, especially when he started to insist that the thing should eat with them at the table. She desperately wanted to find a reason to get her baby to drop his interest in the game and the boy, but everything she tried was turned down as he made his way back up to his room with the freak in tow. Her baby had even started to loose weight! It started out with him eating a little less at each meal so the freak could have a little more as they refused to let him make more then usual and then he started to take walks with it every morning, after lunch and once after dinner. When Vernon had mentioned that the boy was only supposed to be helping Dudley with that computer game of his he threw a horrible tantrum that had left both of them stunned and willing to do almost anything to make him stop.

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It was during one of their walks outside that things changed drastically. They were walking through the park on Magnolia Crescent when a group of much larger boys stepped into their path with malicious grins stretched across their faces. "Well, look at what we found here boys. If it isn't the Dursley boy that thinks he's better then the rest of us and his little girlish cousin, why don't we show them what we think of them wondering around our territory." The other boys jeered as they leered in Harry's direction. "Maybe after we're done we can have a little fun with the little girly one, he might even enjoy it."

Neither Dudley nor Harry knew what the older boy was implying, but they really didn't like the laughs that followed the statement or the way that the boys were looking at Harry. What followed was a chase that lead them around the entire neighborhood with the group of boys hot on their heels. It became apparent to them both that Dudley was in no shape to keep it up for very long so they veered toward the school grounds to see if one of the teachers was still around to help them. Unfortunately all the teachers were gone as there had only been half day and they ended up cornered behind one of the school dumpsters as the jeering boys threatened them as they advanced toward their hiding place.

Dudley had never been so scared in his entire life, he knew that those boys were going to beat him up but he was even more worried about what the leader wanted with Harry; he had sounded really evil when he said 'a little fun' and Dudley didn't like it one bit. He kept a firm hold on Harry, almost afraid to let him go when he suddenly felt as if he was being squeezed through a very small tube before he opened his eyes, which he had closed when he knew that they were trapped, to find both Harry and himself on top of the school building looking down at the bullies that were looking behind the dumpster with confused and frustrated looks on their faces. He watched in shock as they seemed to give up after a couple of minutes and stalked off muttering about how they would have to catch the little 'runt' later.

When Dudley looked over at Harry it was to find him staring back with awe and a fair amount of fear in his eyes. "I wanted to get away so badly and then it felt like there was a surge of something inside of me and then we were up here." Harry turned white as a sheet when a new thought occurred to him suddenly. "Aunt and Uncle are right, I am a freak!"

Dudley snapped out of his shock to grab a hold of a very badly shaking Harry and pull him into a somewhat awkward embrace. "You are not a freak! You're just special, you can do magic just like the people in World of Warcraft!" Harry looked up at his cousin while relaxing into his very first hug. "You could probably do all the different things they could do; maybe you could try the other stuff when my parents are busy while we play!"

Harry couldn't help but smile at Dudley's enthusiasm as he motioned with his hands and continued on about how awesome it would be to be able to do all those things and how they would have so much fun. He watched him for several minutes before he realized that it was getting a little late and they needed to get home in time for him to make dinner before Vernon got home. He interrupted Dudley by wrapping his arms around him and concentrating on the feeling he got when he teleported them the first time and squeezed his eyes shut as the same feeling of being squished through a tube overtook him and he opened his eyes to find them back behind the dumpster.

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Petunia was almost ready to start scouring the neighborhood for her little baby boy when he walked through the door with the freak looking happier then she had ever seen him. She wasn't particularly happy that her boy seemed to be so obsessed with spending time with it, but she had to admit that it really was starting to make a large difference in his behavior that she was happy about. He didn't throw half as many tantrums now and seemed to actually think about what he was going to say before he said it, he was getting much better at reading though he still insisted that he really needed the freak's help, and the thing that she was most pleased about was that he was starting to loose weight and gain some healthy eating habits. While she wouldn't admit it out loud, she was happy that her Diddiums had taken a shining to the boy even if he was a freak.

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Vernon wasn't quite so pleased with the changes to his prodigal son, but he knew that his wife was happy and you know what they say 'happy wife, happy life."

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Dudley's mind whirled with possibilities all the way home and up to his room. His cousin was special, he could do things like the ones in World of Warcraft he might even be able to do all of them. He had a feeling that his parents already knew just how special he was, that's probably why they didn't like him, but he thought it was the most amazing thing that he had ever seen.

He managed to keep his enthusiasm under wraps until they reached his room and the door swung shut behind them with a soft click. "That was so awesome, what if you can actually do all the things that are in the game maybe even more." He could hardly contain himself as he almost bounced around his cousin who looked rather amused.

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	3. A Druid Beginning

**Disclaimer:I do not own Harry Potter or World of Warcraft.**

**Sorry for the wait.**

**The chapters after this one will most likely be longer.**

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"Tomorrow while mother is over at Mrs. Johnson's house next door we can start practicing the smaller stuff from the game in this room." Dudley was almost vibrating in his excitement. "We should probably start off with a class that has a lot of passive magic like the animal stuff that the druids do or the stat buffs that the priest do. The druid stuff would be easier to see happen. We'll start off with the bear form and move up from there." Dudley nodded decisively as Harry watched him with a small smile on his face; he would do whatever it took to make Dudley happy and keep himself safe and it did sound like fun.

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The next day dawned brightly as Vernon made his way to work to extort more money from his so far clueless bosses, Petunia made sure that the boys knew not to leave the house until she got back that afternoon and the boys conspired quietly until they were sure that Petunia was well and truly gone.

Dudley paced around the room as they studied the descriptions both on the screen and in the official guide book that Dudley had forced his parents to buy him almost in the dead of the night. They wanted to make sure that they knew exactly what to do before they tried anything.

It sounded simple enough to the both of them. First Harry would have to find a way to commune with the guardian spirit of the animal that he wanted to become and get its permission to change. The only thing that they didn't really understand was how they were going to find the guardian spirits in the real world; neither of them had ever heard of spirits but they both knew that Dudley's parents hated anything unusual so there could be guardian spirits. They ended up searching the internet until they found a link to an American Indian website that detailed all of the spirits and old tales that had been the foundation of their culture and both boys knew that this was what they needed to know.

They read each and every page of the website, paying careful attention to how they contacted their spirits. This ended up leading to Harry sitting in the middle of the room with Dudley sitting across from him as he tried to clear his mind of all thought and the knowledge that the animal would choose him and not the other way around.

It was actually something that Harry was already rather good at. Before Dudley had decided to make his parents stop using him for every little chore he would clear his mind before he started so that if they walked into the room and started insulting him he wouldn't even hear them. It also numbed the pain from when he did too many chores or when Vernon clipped him in the head or threw him into the cupboard. When he cleared his mind of every little thought he felt almost as if he was falling into a mental abyss before he felt something foreign enter his mind.

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Dudley watched as his cousin's eyes started to glow in awe. He wasn't jealous of his cousin's power, he knew that the kind of power that Harry had carried way too much responsibility for him and he also knew that he didn't have the control to keep from hurting himself. He wanted Harry to be powerful enough to take care of himself just in case his parents ever decided to abandon him like they used to all the time.

Petunia had visited the room only briefly after she returned home and Dudley stopped her at the door to keep her from seeing Harry and managed to convince her that he didn't need anything and that he would make sure that Harry was down in time to make dinner. After the door closed he returned to his spot across from Harry and continued to watch.

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"It has been such a very long time since the last time I was summoned. What do you require of me little one?" Harry shivered mentally as the matronly voice rang through his head. It made him feel full and warm.

"I wanted to ask you for permission to use your form and your protection while using it." Harry was incredibly nervous about asking a powerful being for anything but he relaxed when he felt a wave of positive emotions practically pouring from the being that he still could not see. He wasn't even sure which animal spirit had answered his call.

"You are an unusual child; most of those that have the power to ask such a thing are too closed minded to do anything more than take on a basic form that is a mere mockery of what they are capable of." The voice sounded approving and calmed Harry down further.

"There are others like me?" Harry had always dreamed that there would be others like him but after years of finding nothing and being told that he was a freak by Petunia and Vernon he had given up.

The voice laughed lightly and seemed to settle in. "Oh yes child, there are millions of other people who can use magic though none are quite as in tune with it as you are." Harry's spirits dropped a bit, he was still weird. "It is a good thing child; you should never feel bad about such a wonderful connection to magic." The voice seemed to be able to sense exactly what he was feeling, though it couldn't be hard since they were in his head. "You may call me Azury. I am the guardian spirit of foxes and I would be honored to allow you the use and protection of my form."

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When Harry finally came back to himself it was to find Dudley sitting in the same place that he had been that morning despite the fact that Harry knew that it was nearing dinner time. "Did you get the animal spirit to let you use it? What animal did you talk to?" Dudley's voice was higher then normal in his excitement.

"Her name was Azury and she is a fox. She said that she would let me use her form and that if I needed help with anything that she would be more then happy to help me." Harry only briefly wondered whether he should reveal everything. "She also said that there are a lot of other people that can use magic but that I was one of the most connected to magic."

Dudley's face tilted as he considered the new information. "If there are other magic people out there why didn't they take you instead of leaving you with us? If you have magic then your parents probably did too and they probably had tons of friends and they would have taken care of you a bunch better then mum and dad."

It brought a smile to Harry's face to realize how alike he and Dudley really were. "I asked that too. Azury said that there is a man named Dumbledore that left me here and didn't tell anyone where he put me so that no magical person could take me away. He wanted me to be raised somewhere where I would end up with a low self worth," the complicated wording had both of them a little confused, "so that when I turned eleven and got a letter inviting me to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry I would be so grateful that I would do whatever he wanted me to."

Dudley didn't like the sound of that at all. "I don't think that I like this Dumbledore person very much, but since we have a lot of time before we have to worry about him it doesn't matter now. So when are you going to show me your new form?" The excitement was clear in his voice as he almost bounced in place and it brought a smile to Harry's face.

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**Hogwarts**

Dumbledore was sitting at his desk going through all of the tedious paperwork that he would almost swear was capable of reproducing when he felt a shiver pass down his spine.

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	4. A Skip to Eleven

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or the Warcraft franchise.**

**It may seem a little rushed, but its necessary to keep the story going.**

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"Alright, the letter says that you need to have all of your school books, a bunch of different supplies and that you could bring a cat, toad or owl with you when you go." Dudley read quietly as the two boys huddled in the corner of Dudley's packed room and conspired. The letter had come with the daily post and Harry had stuffed it in his shirt to keep Vernon or Petunia from making off with it.

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The adult Dursleys had reverted to their old behavior when Dudley was old enough for school and the teachers started to praise him for how well he could already read. They had moved Harry back to the cupboard under the stairs but after several fits and tantrums from Dudley he was still allowed out during the days that Dudley didn't have school to 'entertain' him. They wouldn't even dream of letting Harry go to school and run the risk of everyone finding out about him, so Dudley let Harry read all of his course books and even took things out of the school library for him to read when he was cooped up. It was certainly not the best of situations but it was the best that they could do for now, but hopefully after Harry got to Hogwarts he would be able to find somewhere else to go.

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The only thing that Harry could honestly say that he didn't like about wandering around as a cat was that every child and little old lady just had to stop and pet him until he almost felt as if his hair was going to come straight off. He had almost made it to the portal where Bast had told him that he would be able to find everything on his list when a girl with some of the frizziest hair he had ever seen had practically scooped him up without so much as a by your leave.

"Oh mother, isn't he just the cutest looking thing?" The girl's voice was rather low pitched and pleasant though the spinning sensation as she twirled around was another matter entirely. The woman behind her was similar in looks but seemed much more subdued.

"Yes, he is a rather fetching feline but I highly doubt that he wants to be swung around like a rag doll, honey." Harry gave a plaintive mew of agreement and bolted through the door to the Leaky Cauldron the moment his paws met the ground. The two females followed him in but he only had eyes for the small passageway from the inn to the alley that familiars were supposed to use. Apparently the wizards and witches had to tap a certain pattern into a brick wall to get in so it was easy to loose the girl who still looked like she wanted nothing more than to cuddle him to death. The sigh that left his lips as he passed through the passage was completely swallowed by his awed gasp as he took in all of the sights that Diagon Alley had to offer. The place was like a shopping center straight out of the middle ages with witches and wizards running from shop to shop with the huge form of what could only be the bank that Bast had told him about with the feline version of a smile on her face rising in the middle.

He dodged around the hurrying adults and frenzied children as he made his way to the bank, but ducked into a short alleyway right before it to change back into his human form before walking in without noticing the poem on the door or the two guards that shot him startled looks as he bowed lightly on his way in.

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"Excuse me sir, but I need to talk to the goblin in charge of my family's vaults as I was never given a key." Harry had thought about how to ask about his money after Azury had told him that he came from a very old pureblood line that had lots of money to spare. He figured that with creatures as money minded as goblins were, blunt would be the best way to go about things as they probably considered their time to be very valuable.

The goblin that he had addressed looked down at him with barely contained shock at the polite tone and narrowed his eyes when he caught sight of the scar on the boy child's forehead and the full brunt of his words hit him. "You should have always had possession of your key as the last remaining heir. I am sure that your account manager would be most interested in such an oversight." The goblin hopped down and realized with a jolt that the boy was hardly that much taller than himself before shaking himself and motioning to the back area. "If you would follow me, Lord Potter, we will get this issue sorted out shortly."

"I would prefer to just be called Harry. What is your name?" Harry quickly fell into step behind the goblin and missed the surprise that briefly crossed his face.

"My name is Rockgrip." The goblin, Rockgrip, set a rather fast pace through the main area of the bank and through several of the connecting hallways before stopping in front of a very ornate gold door with a crest emblazoned in the center. The crest had two rearing griffons facing each other with a sword wrapped in vines in the center. "This is the office of the goblin in control of the Potter vaults, he should be more than able to answer any question that you have and will be very interested in how little you know about your heritage." Rockgrip bowed and quickly made his way back to the front of the bank to continue his job, though the green eyed boy was on the forefront of his mind for the rest of the day.

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Harry pushed the heavy gold door open with a light grunt and entered the office with more than a little bit of trepidation, this was the goblin that was responsible for every coin in the vaults that his parents left him after all. The goblin was fairly young looking but there were a lot of stress lines around his eyes that crinkled as he looked up. "My name is Harry James Potter and I am here to talk to you about my family vaults as I have not been given a key or any information about them."

The goblin stood with a scowl and walked over to one of the heavily stuffed file cabinets on the far wall. "Yes, I have no doubt that the old man has your vault key with one of his most 'trusted' puppets but the only thing that you really need to unlock the vault and all of the investments therein is for you to sign a release for the will of your parents." The goblin place the parchment in front of the slight boy. "Sign here and we will listen to the will and get a new set of keys as well as settle the account matters that have been up in the air."

Harry quickly looked down at the parchment and read every word as quickly as his mind could keep up under the approving gaze of one old goblin. Most wizards were far too lazy to read the documents before they signed them, which made it rather simple to increase the vault fees with very little trouble. The document was a simple will release and Harry signed it with care before leaning back to look the goblin in the eye. "You have yet to tell me your name sir."

The goblin gave a fanged grin as he scooped the parchment off the table. "My name is Goldcairn and I have looked after the Potter vaults for four generations. The will was put into suspension by Albus Dumbledore so it has yet to be viewed, it should be rather illuminating."

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_If this is being played I guess that means that all of the plans that we made didn't really help in the long run and that Pettigrew was really the traitor. We thought that Voldemort would never go after someone like him and made him the Secret Keeper instead of Sirius. I'm sure that Albus has already cleared that up as the mediator, but you never know with the old coot._

_Hopefully Harry is safe with Sirius, which somehow doesn't sound right, but if there is some reason that he can't go with him we compiled a list of people to take care of our little Prongslet._

_Sirius Orion Black_

_Remus John Lupin_

_Alice Ann Longbottom_

_Minerva Margaret McGonagall_

_Severus Tobias Snape_

_Amos Anton Diggory_

_Under no Circumstances is our baby to be housed within the house of Petunia Rose Dursley._

_One million and the Marauder's Palace in Wales goes to old Moony, Remus Lupin. Go buy yourself something nice to wear old boy. The rest of our fortune and property goes to our baby boy, Harry James Potter, as I doubt that Sirius really needs the money with the Black fortune still under his belt. _

_Harry, we want you to know that we love you and that we will stand by you no matter what happens._

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"Shouldn't a will be longer?" Harry had never actually seen a will be the ones that were on some of the movies that Dudley got for him to watch were so much longer.

"Yes, but this was made as a contingency will for the time that they were to spend in hiding from the forces of the dark. They likely thought that it would not be needed and only covered what had to be covered in a will." Goldcairn gathered the will back into the containment ball, it was kind of like a prophecy in form and retook his seat behind his desk. "There is evidence in that will that will free your godfather from Azkaban, so it may not be necessary to return you to your relatives even without the others mentioned but they will be contacted. For now the only thing that you need to worry about is buying your school supplies and securing somewhere to stay until the beginning of the school year."

"Is there anywhere that you would suggest for me to stay?" Harry could almost feel his head start to spin a bit, but he was going to stay completely calm if it was the last thing he did.

"I would personally recommend that you stay in the Leaky Cauldron. It is moderately comfortable but more importantly, the innkeeper is very good at keeping the identity of his patrons a secret and his wards are second to none."

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	5. The Beginning of a Change

**Disclaimer:I do not own Harry Potter or anything from the World of Warcraft universe, except my toons, they belong to me!**

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It turned out that the bartender, Tom, was more than happy to let Harry use one of his most secure bedrooms at no charge, even when Harry tried to insist that he be allowed to pay. The room itself was comfortable but the food was really delicious. Harry only stayed long enough for Tom to key him into the wards on the room and scarf down a light lunch before racing back into the alley to start gathering his school supplies.

The very first place that he ended up in was the bookstore, Florish and Blotts. All the spirits that he had contact with had told him that there was a very large difference between the magic that he knew and the magic that existed in the wizarding world and he wanted to see just how different it could be. Everything that he had learned from playing World of Warcraft and from his spirits was fairly easy after a few hiccups where Dudley had to find some excuse for why there were scorch marks all over his room. Petunia always looked like she knew better and wanted to punish Harry for it but couldn't stand the thought of the tantrum that Dudley would throw if she didn't believe him.

He immediately spotted the same girl from earlier and made sure that he was on the other end of the store, he wanted to get in and out without having to deal with anyone his own age. Dudley was the only other child that he had ever been around and he wasn't too sure about anyone else. She seemed like an okay girl, if somewhat too excitable but Harry was sure that people thought that Vernon and Petunia were nice people too.

Harry ended up starting in the history section and found himself with a dilemma, he knew that there would probably be a lot of books in the school's library that he could get out but there were so many books here that he wanted to read. He ended up only grabbing the books that he knew that he would need for the school year along with enough light reading to keep him busy if he finished with his course books too early. The girl from earlier was pulling her mother around the store with a determined look on her face and a steadily growing pile of books in the basket that her mother was carrying with a resigned look on her face. It would be nice to have a whole lot of books to read whenever he wanted but why buy all those books if the course books would keep him busy until school and then he could get whatever book he wanted out of the library. Plus the bookstore had an 'owl order' option so if he couldn't find what he wanted he could always buy it from school.

The apothecary was a short stop as his nose was assaulted by all of the different smells and it made him really dizzy. Ever since he started transforming his senses got a lot stronger and if the potion class was even half as bad smelling as the apothecary it was going to be his least favorite class if he couldn't find a way to block all the smells. The man that ran the shop watched him with narrowed eyes and seemed surprised when he quickly found everything that he needed and didn't manage to break a single vial.

Harry only stopped in the menagerie long enough to snag a very beautiful snowy owl that he immediately fell in love with and named Hedwig. He thought about getting a cat or a toad but he wasn't a fan of toads and he wanted some way to communicate with Dudley, especially if he didn't have to go back to the Dursleys.

The trip to get his robes was downright embarrassing. The woman who ran the place made him stand on a stool and proceeded to measure things that she had no business measuring as far as Harry was concerned. She told him how horrible his clothing was and proceeded to outfit him with an entire new wardrobe and absolutely refused to let him pay for a single stitch of it. What he didn't know was that the woman had seen his scar when he had lightly brushed the hair from his forehead and was appalled at how ratty the savoir was dressed. She took great pleasure in making him look as she thought he deserved to look and it wasn't like she was hurting for money, one trip from a Malfoy would more than make up for several makeovers. Harry rather enjoyed when she had him put on one of the outfits that she already had in his size and immediately burned what he had been wearing before promising that the rest of his wardrobe would be completed before he left for Hogwarts.

The last stop on his trip for school supplies was into Ollivander's wand shop and he left feeling very confused and more than a little bit uncomfortable. He hadn't wanted to get a wand, he hadn't needed one to use magic before but Azury had told him that every witch and wizard used a wand to access their magic because they had forgotten that it was only to be used to get used to summoning their magic. If he started using magic without a wand they wouldn't understand and would think that he was unusual and that was one thing he didn't want, he felt strange enough when he lived with the Dursleys. By the time that he was finally able to go back to the Leaky Cauldron and collapse into the most comfortable bed that he had ever had he was more than a little exhausted. Hopefully he wouldn't have to do that much shopping ever again.

{*}

Rockgrip was an admittedly young goblin, though to a witch or wizard his age was rather impressive, so it was no surprise that he had a matter of grave importance entrusted to him by one of the senior account managers. Normally the account managers chose to have one of the humans in the bank handle any communications the goblins had to partake in with the Ministry. It made the humans more comfortable and it meant that they didn't have to deal with the idiots in charge of the various corrupt governments. The only time that a goblin was sent to deal with the Ministry was when a human just could not be trusted.

The envelope that Goldcairn handed him practically reeked of magic and the Potter family seal gleamed across the front and the back. Whatever was in it was obviously something important and Rockgrip bore it with pride as he ignored the staring humans and bustled through the Ministry building without breaking stride. He bypassed the desk in the atrium as the secretary looked on in confusion, goblins don't have wands so why stop or slow down for someone that has no useful or lucrative function. He didn't stop until he barged into the office of the Minister himself with his secretary trying to follow him only to have the door slam shut as soon as he cleared it.

{*}

Fudge was a man that most would consider a fool and he knew it. He banked on the fact on more than one occasion to make sure that no one noticed what he had going on in the background. He had had several laws overturned while making it look like he supported the nonsense, most of those laws came from the undersecretary that he had appointed to make his position of incompetence complete, though he honestly couldn't stand the woman. He was just sitting down to skim though some odd petition or another from the woman when the door to his office slammed open and closed around a goblin that looked more serious than your usual goblin. The intruder quickly erected a ward and laid a rather regal looking envelope in front of him.

"This is a missive of vital importance from an account manager of high standing and it would be very wise to heed anything within it." The goblin hopped up into one of the chairs in front of Fudge's desk and stared with more than a little impatience in his eyes.

The seal was one that had his eyes widening and he tore the envelope open without the slightest bit of hesitance and read the missive with a fervor that quickly turned to horror as he neared the bottom of the page. He hardly noticed as his hands began to shake halfway down.

_Minister Cornelius Fudge:_

_It has come to the attention of Gringotts that the Potter account has suffered a breach of trust with a wizard that has taken more than he was due. The Potter will was never read and was in fact sealed by a vote from the Wizarding Gamut shortly after the unfortunate demise of the Potter Lord and Lady. The vote was headed by none other than the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore. He also immediately placed himself as the magical guardian of the Potter heir._

_This is not an unused practice in the case of orphaned heirs but normally the heir is housed with their guardian but Mr. Potter was instead housed with his mother's muggle family. I would like to remind you that the housing of the heir of a pureblooded family with a muggle family was made illegal fifty years ago when the Aurous Family was wiped out when the muggle family killed the heir after a burst of accidental magic set a rose bush ablaze._

_This afternoon the young Potter heir entered my office with little to no idea of his power or money and informed me that he had never seen his key. Once again, it is illegal to knowingly keep the key to a family's vault from it's heir, even when the Lord is alive, and most especially when there is no current Lord. I was notably alarmed by the revelation as well as the boy's overall appearance. _

_He is unnaturally small for a young wizard about to enter Hogwarts though there is a fair amount of muscle mass, there was no sign of the normal 'baby fat' children his age should have plenty of. His clothes were appallingly worn and looked to belong to a much more robust boy at least four inched taller. To be quite frank, he looked more like a waif of the street than the heir to one of the most powerful families in the world._

_I immediately gave him the form to release the will of his parents and found several very large revelations that cast a dark light on a certain old wizard._

_The secret keeper for the Potters was not Sirius Black but Peter Pettigrew, which brings the question of whether the whole incident in the street was as clear cut as it was made out to be. Albus Dumbledore was the mediator for the Fidelus charm, so there is no doubt that he was aware of the true secret keeper and yet still sought Lord Black's incarceration._

_There was a stipulation that a million galleons was to be given to their family friend, a Mr. Remus Lupin. Research into the subject has shown that the man is currently living below the poverty line in the muggle world._

_There was also a rather thought out list of people that should have been allowed custody of Mr. Potter in case Lord Black was not capable with the stipulation that he not be put under the care of his muggle relatives in any situation._

_I am sure that you can appreciate the position that this places both of our institutions in as I am sure that the public would not take kindly to the knowledge that the savoir was not taken care of as he should have been. _

_I have included a copy of the will with the proper authentication seals in this missive so that justice can be done an perhaps some manner of atonement attained. I hope that any dealings between Gringotts and the Ministry after this will be of a much brighter subject matter._

_May your gold always flow,_

_Goldcairn - Potter Family Manager_

There is one thing that you have to understand about the wizarding world to fully grasp the amount of anger that Fudge was working through after finishing the letter.

Children in the wizarding world were a rare blessing to most, the Weasleys excluded of course. Something about the magic flowing through the blood of the parent and the child often damaged the mother's womb during delivery and made it impossible to have more than one child from the same mother and this was also true for submissive males who gave birth. Many purebloods looked down on the Weasleys because it was either a lack of magic on the mother's part or on the child's part that allowed for multiple births and after seeing the children succeed it was almost common knowledge that it had to be the mother in that case.

Child abuse was a completely foreign idea for any pureblood wizard, they would never even consider harming any child let alone their own. Even the Dark Lords that sprouted up every now and then would avoid children and would only use the painless killing curse if it truly was necessary. To think of the possibility of the savoir of the wizarding world being abused and being placed in that abusive environment by a wizard was more than enough to raise his hackles. The most damning article was that the will of the boy's parents forbid him from being placed in that household at any point.

Fudge stood without giving the smug looking goblin, though one could hardly tell, a backward glance and made his way to the Auror Department to try to salvage what looked to be a decade's worth of injustice. Hopefully the boy and man most hurt by this would hold no grudges against those who didn't know any better.

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	6. To Sue a Coot

Harry had never been happier as far as he knew. The Leaky Cauldron was a very comfortable place to stay with nice beds and wonderful food, even if he couldn't manage to eat an entire plateful just yet. Tom always had something new to try at every meal and made sure that he didn't miss any because he got caught up in reading one of his course books.

As for the course books themselves, well, he could certainly understand why he was told that things were very different. It amazed him how practically nothing in the books was truly useful. I mean, yeah it would be helpful to levitate things that were too heavy, but with the way their charms worked you wouldn't be able to float anything heavier than a feather for weeks. Harry could only hope that they would be teaching something more useful in the actual class.

Potions on the other hand greatly interested him as it was something that World of Warcraft couldn't really help him with. Sure there were plenty of different potions that could heal you or increase your abilities but almost none of the ingredients existed here. He could almost admit that he was looking forward to learning something that didn't rely on magical maturation but on how much effort you put in. The only problem would be just how much most of the ingredients smelled and how many of them included the word bile, yuck.

{W}

One Albus Dumbledore was not having a good day. It started off rather well, he watched as the last batch of Hogwarts letters for the upcoming year winged their way toward the new first years and sat back with a lemon drop to ponder how things were rolling along.

He knew that there were things he had done that were perhaps not the best for the people involved but everything he did was for the greater good of the wizarding world. He knew the moment that he heard the prophecy that there were too many variables to let it play itself out so he set things up to have them play out with as little damage as possible. It was truly a shame that both the Potters and the Longbottoms had to pay the price but it was better to have two families gone than even more. He had been hoping that whoever Tom attacked that night would get rid of him for good but it had been obvious that that was not the case the moment he had entered what remained of Godric's Hollow.

Tom's magical signature was all over the place which was honestly to be expected but it had a clear trail out of the top floor and off into the night. It was obvious that while the man's body was indeed gone the spirit had managed to somehow live on. It was then that he had to make another choice to save the many over the one. The boy would have to face Tom again, that much was assured by the prophecy, but the next meeting or meetings could be controlled. Sirius had made it easy by immediately going after Pettigrew, with only the smallest amount of persuasion that played off of his guilt and grief, with him out of the picture it was a simple matter to place Harry where he would be raised in the necessary manner.

Sirius would have made the boy willful and headstrong with little to no respect for authority. The boy needed to be humble and willing to do whatever was necessary to save the Wizarding world and with the horrible treatment that Petunia would no doubt deliver he would do anything for the one responsible for 'saving' him. The boy needed to be a soldier for the light, Tom could not be allowed to rule the wizarding world as he saw fit.

The molding of the Light's weapon was to start before young Harry even knew that he was a wizard. Dumbledore knew that the Dursleys likely wouldn't take well to the Hogwarts letter and that he would eventually have to send someone to hand deliver it as well as take young Harry shopping for his supplies. He had prepared his most loyal worker, Hagrid, to make sure that the first impression of the wizarding world was one that would endear the boy to him and keep him away from the path that Tom went down. Everything was planned and should have worked out wonderfully.

It wasn't until this morning when he was going to send Hagrid out that he received a rather upsetting letter from Gringotts. Apparently the boy had been allowed to go to Diagon Alley on his own and that foul woman had actually told him that Gringotts had his money. The goblins were somewhat less than pleased that he didn't have his key and were suing him, the defeater of Grindlewald and Headmaster of Hogwarts, with theft. He would have to go down to the Ministry and persuade Cornelius that this whole fiasco was just a misunderstanding. After all, with the boy's only magical representative locked up in Azkaban he was well within his rights to hold the boy's heritage for him until he was old enough to take care of it on his own. Surely this could all be cleared up and the boy could be safely back with his relatives.

{W}

"Cornelius, I'm afraid there has been some kind of terrible misunderstanding and I would be most glad to have your help in clearing the little mess up before it goes any further." Dumbledore swept into the Minister's office, completely ignoring the secretary's blatantly desperate pleas to the contrary to find himself faced with a rather irate man.

"You have no right to burst into my office without an appointment and there is no way that I am going to get you out of the fire that you set under yourself." Cornelius had never been a fan of the supposed leader of the Light and felt no sympathy for the man. "The goblins are well within their rights to sue someone that did not have proper rights to withhold the heritage of an orphaned heir and there is no one in this building that can stop them from taking retribution for Mr. Potter and investigating anything that was brought to light during their exploration of the Potter will and vault."

The look of confusion was one Cornelius wanted to have framed. "The Ministry is doing everything it can to support them in this including reevaluating the imprisonment of Lord Black. It is rather interesting that you were so set in getting him thrown into Azkaban without a trail so soon after the Potters' death while you should have been more than aware of his innocence in the betrayal as you were the one that set up the protection for them around Godric's Hollow. The only thing that we are unsure of at this point is whether he killed Pettigrew but that can be cleared up rather quickly with a couple of questions and drops of truth serum. Now, if you would be so kind as to vacate my office while I finish filling out the paperwork for a full investigation into every decision you have made along with every law that you have put into effect I would be most grateful. Have a good day Albus."

{W}

Richard Pilsky had never done anything to separate himself from the pack so to speak. He had been a Hufflepuff and was content to take a guard position soon after graduation with a bunch of his friends. Unfortunately he showed enough of an aptitude with the Patronus Charm to land himself as a guard in Azkaban but the pay was good even if the job was boring. After all, no one had ever escaped and the Dementors were the ones that really did the guarding.

He had just been sitting down to go over the list of prisoners set for rotation to a higher or lower security block when a very impatient owl landed right on the reports with a look that told him that a pecking was to be expected if he did not react fast enough. Somehow he knew that there wasn't going to be anything boring about today.


	7. A Sirius Matter and a Train

**Disclaimer: I do not own rights to Harry Potter or World of Warcraft.**

**If I was to bring a member of WoW to Harry Potter, which one would you like to see?**

* * *

There were many things that one Sirius Orion Black regretted doing in his life. He regretted losing touch with his baby brother, the one member of his immediate family that never held him to an image that he would never be able to live up to. He regretted ever befriending the sniveling little coward known as Peter Pettigrew and teaching the idiot how to transform into a rat. He regretted ever thinking for even a moment that Remus might have betrayed them to the other side because of his furry little problem. He regretted the night that he almost used Moony to kill the greasy git. There was one thing that he regretted the most out of the many things he wished that he could take back, he wished that he could take that night ten years ago back.

He knew that moment that he had found Peter's empty apartment that the rat had given James, Lily and Harry up. He rushed to Godric's Hollow without looking back and the very sight of the house brought him to his knees for just a moment before he was rushing into the house looking for his surrogate family. James' body brought tears to his eyes as his best friend stared unseeingly at the destroyed front door. It took every ounce of strength he had to continue up the stairs to the nursery of his little godson. Lily's eyes were just as piercing as ever, even with the glaze of death covering them, the look on her face spoke volumes about just what had happened.

Sirius crept up to the baby bed with bated breath, he knew that the odds weren't in Harry's favor but he had to see. Emerald green eyes bright with life stared up at him from the face that he had loved the first moment he had laid eyes on him. His Prongslet was alive, he wasn't sure just how it was possible but it wasn't something he was going to question. He had scooped Harry up and had every intention of taking him home to make sure that there wasn't anything wrong with him. Hagrid had met him just outside of the house though and had taken his Prongslet away from him saying something about Dumbledore sending him but without his godson in his arms he lost his fight with his rage and he had gone after the rat.

He knew that the traitor would try to go into the muggle world, it was the only way to stay off of the Ministries radar. Sirius had confronted him with every intention of killing the man in the middle of that road, but Peter knew him well enough to know better than to let him get a spell off. He had been so stunned at Peter's rare show of backbone that he had laughed the entire time the Aurors were dragging him to a holding cell.

Sirius barely looked up as the sound of footfalls echoed through the corridor. It wasn't time for food and the minister wasn't due in to mock him again for another two days. He was therefore surprised to see one of the wardens stop outside of his cell with a dumbfounded look on his face that was warring with what looked like pity. The man cleared his throat and seemed to use the slight chill in the prison to steady himself. "Sirius Orion Black, you are to attend your trial at the Ministry courtroom number ten immediately. There has been a reevaluation of your status along with the discovery of the will of James and Lily Potter and your lack of an original trial. Please stand slowly so I can place the necessary restraints on you until we reach the courtroom."

{W}

Many of the members of the Wizarding Gamut were more than a bit curious about why they had suddenly been summoned out of their homes for a trial that no one seemed to know anything about. It was even stranger to find that the Head Mugwump wasn't present and from what little they were able to find out from the smug looking Minister, he wasn't going to be coming at all.

It came as a great surprise to all the assembled members when a chained Sirius Black was led into the room by a rather forgettable man that seemed rather reluctant to rush the thin man to his seat despite his slow pace. Black slid into the chair with a sigh that told everyone there how long it had been since the man had been allowed to sit in any chair.

Fudge waited until Black was fully settled and the warden was seated at the back of the room before standing with an air of confidence that few ever got to see from him. "We are here today because it has been brought to my attention that not only was Mr. Black not given a trial, as was his right, but also that he was not the one that held the secret to the Potter's safe house as was previously believed." Fudge waited until the noise died down. "The will of James and Lily Potter stated quite clearly that their Secret Keeper was none other than Peter Pettigrew. That leaves this man's only possible crime to be the murder of a traitor and 13 muggles and we are here to see if there is any truth behind those charges."

One of the wizards that Sirius could vaguely remember seeing at least one Order meeting seemed to puff up in outrage. "Why are we convening on such an important matter without the Supreme Mugwump present. All cases of this magnitude require his vote to break any ties in ruling." Several others nodded their heads while many more looked bored and annoyed.

Fudge gave the man a look that made him shrink back despite being twice the minister's age. "He was the one that oversaw and cast the Fidelus charm on the Potter's home." Gasps were heard all over the room and Sirius had to shake a rather ugly looking beetle out of his hair from where it had fallen out of the air. "He knew beyond any doubt that Mr. Black was not the one that gave up their location and that provides more than enough doubt to make sure that the other charges were looked into more thoroughly. Since Dumbledore is partly to blame for everything that Mr. Black has went through he has been banned from this trial. If there is a stalemate among you I will cast the deciding vote though I do not think it will be necessary with three drops of truth serum and a couple of the right questions."

The thought in the minds of most of the assembled wizards was 'who is this man and what did he do to Fudge?'

{W}

Harry stretched out as far as he could and put the book he was reading into his fully packed trunk. Tom had told him that he could use something called the floo to get directly to the station instead of having to make his way through the whole station and he wanted to be there early enough to get a compartment all to himself. He got along with his cousin but most children either thought he was weird or they just annoyed him.

{W}

The floo was something that would certainly take some getting used to. He had barely managed to stay on his feet and that was only because of all the training the spirits had made him do, they said that his body needed to be healthy to channel magic the way that it was made to. After the Dursleys had started to reduce the amount of food he was given he learned how to conjure food, it never tasted quite as good as the food that he cooked but it was filling and nutritious. Dudley really liked the muffins for some reason.

The station was almost completely empty though there were a few older teens chatting with their friends with their parents standing nearby. It made his heart hurt to see the proud looks on the parents' faces as they finally bid their children goodbye and left. He took a deep breath and pushed the pain back and made for the train. He may not have parents but his spirits were there for him when he needed them and if his godfather was really innocent he would have him too.

Harry searched only briefly before he found a compartment in the middle that was completely empty and not to close or far from the front of the train. He put his trunk, lightened by Tom, into the overhead rack and sat down with a rather pronounced huff. He missed Dudley and knew that the chances of ever seeing him again were slim, but they had both already known that. Of course that didn't make it any easier.

{W}

Ronald Weasley had always been in the shadow of one of his brothers. He wasn't as brave as Charlie, who managed to stand up to their mother and now worked with dragons that could eat him in one bite. He wasn't as daring as Bill who worked in Egypt on curses that gave mother fits every time she thought about it, and he certainly couldn't fathom getting anything pierced or growing his hair out like that. He would never be as smart as Percy, who managed to get prefect this year. Fred and George were pranksters that seemed more immune to being scolded than he could ever be. No, he was the youngest boy, who wasn't the best at pretty much anything but he had a plan to make sure that people wouldn't just dismiss him as the youngest Weasley male.

Ron was going to be the best friend of Harry Potter, the Savior of the Wizarding World. Dumbledore had talked with his mother about how the boy had been raised by muggles and how he would need someone to make sure that he wasn't lured into the wrong sort, he probably meant Slytherins. Ron was supposed to make friends with him to keep him in the Light and it would make sure that people noticed him. He would be famous just by being with Harry and none of his brothers could take that from him.

He put up with his mother's tearful goodbyes and ignored the Twins as they snickered before running off to find their friend, Lee Jordan. He barely heard his mother as she gave him a last minute warning to keep to the rules and study hard as he practically rushed onto the train. He had to find Harry before a Slytherin got to him.

{W}

Harry was in the middle of rereading his Charms book, and making fun of how hard they made everything seem, when the door was flung open and a panting redhead leaned against the door jam. "The other compartments are full, do you mind if I sit here with you?"

Something about the boy made his hair stand on end but he didn't want to be rude. "You can sit here, I don't mind. My name is Harry Potter."

The boy sat down heavily and seemed to perk up for some odd reason. "My name is Ron Weasley, are you really Harry Potter?" He looked nervous for a moment before looking up at Harry's forehead. "Do you have the scar?"

Harry lifted the fringe of hair that he kept just to keep the scar out of sight and watched as the boy almost seemed to drool over it. Something told him that this was going to be a common thing that was going to annoy him very quickly.

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	8. Arrival and a Sirius Moment

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or World of Warcraft.**

**Not dead, huh, who knew?**

* * *

Harry was honestly surprised that the boy across him managed to keep from falling out of his seat with how far he was leaning to look at his scar. "Do you remember anything about that night?"

Harry felt a muscle in his neck twitch. "I was one and a half years old, so I do not remember the night that my parents died. I'm rather glad about that fact too." Harry looked back at his book and tried to ignore the stars in the other boy's eyes. Hopefully he would at least manage to be quiet for the rest of the trip. One could hope.

(W)

Sirius could feel his mind blank the moment that the third drop of serum hit his tongue, it felt a little like a dense fog rolled in and covered everything. The Auror that administered the potion waited until his eyes glazed over before turning to Minister Fudge and nodding.

"What is your full name?"

"Sirius Orion Black."

"Were you the Potter's Secret Keeper?"

"No."

"Did you kill Peter Pettigrew and 13 muggles on the street where the Aurors found you?"

"No."

"Do you know who did and how it was done?"

"Yes, Peter Pettigrew cut off his finger and killed the muggles with a blasting curse."

"How did he escape the explosion before the Aurors arrived?"

"He transformed into a rat and went down a sewer drain."

Fudge sent a glare at the entire assembly as they burst in furious arguments.

"Mr. Pettigrew was an animagus?"

"Yes, he transformed into a brown rat."

"If released what would you do?"

"I would gain custody of my godson and make up for all of the time that I have lost with him."

"You would not attempt to find Mr. Pettigrew to punish him for what he has done?"

"No, that's what got me in trouble in the first place."

"Are you or have you ever been a Death Eater?"

"No."

{W}

By the time that the train pulled into the station Harry was more than ready to find a good place to bury the redhead across from him. Every time that Harry tried to return to his reading the redhead would break in to some sort of rant about how all Slytherins were evil and how they would be best friends who showed them their place and how famous they would be. It was more than a little creepy to hear someone his own age rant about evil when he was sure the other boy had probably never even met a Slytherin or even someone that was actually evil. Of course Harry didn't really believe that anyone was actually evil, everyone had a reason that you could understand.

Exiting the train, with said redheaded individual entirely too close, Harry found a mass of children that were all larger than him pressing forward without looking at where they were going. In this situation it was actually good to have the other boy pushing through the crowd and Harry was happy to take advantage by following behind him toward an extremely large man with a very bushy beard. "Firs' years o'er here!"

Harry followed in Ron's wake all the way up to the boats and managed to slip into another boat when the boy clambered into a boat with the same bushy haired girl from the alley. Harry's boat consisted of a dark skinned boy with violet eyes, a boy with brown hair and eyes that looked a little quiet, and a girl that had blonde hair and icy blue eyes. They looked up when he slid carefully into the boat but they didn't stare like Ronald had. A definite bonus as far as Harry was concerned.

The boy with violet eyes was the first one to say anything and he waited until the boat had left the shore. "My name is Blaise Sebastian Zabini, only heir to the Zabini name."

The quiet boy looked up from the book he had opened in his lap. "I am Theodore Alexander Nott, second heir to the Nott name."

The girl looked to Zabini and Nott before locking eyes on Harry. "I am Daphne Lillian Greengrass, oldest female of the Greengrass family."

Harry had a feeling that names here meant quite a bit more than he had originally thought, he would have to make sure that he got a book on the Wizarding world's culture. "I am Hadrian James Potter, only heir to the Potter family and heir apparent of the Black family." He was glad that he had paid a bit of attention to some of the things that Goldcairn had told him about his family. He would have to go back in during the holidays to have a test done to see if he had any other families to worry about but it would be at least that long before the applications to run the test would make their way to the Minister.

None of the other children on the boat reacted with more than a raised eyebrow and Harry felt the tension bleed out of him. He really didn't want everyone to treat him differently just because he lived through something that his parents did not. He would much rather earn different treatment by his actions or abilities.

"There are rumors that you were raised my muggles and were not told of your heritage, it has created quite the stir among the pureblood families that offered to take you in when you were orphaned." Daphne sounded curious but her face didn't change, it was a bit creepy.

"Those rumors are true I'm afraid, I knew that I was capable of magic but I didn't really know why or how until I was invited to Hogwarts this last summer." Technically it wasn't really lying as his spirits didn't fill in all the blanks until then. "I'm hoping to find a way to catch up in the library."

Blaise snorted and Daphne looked at him like it personally offended her. "There is nothing in the library to help you catch up with the true Wizarding world. They dumb down the books and have pretty much stripped all the culture books out of the library to make it easier on the muggleborns to fit in without feeling left out." He looked right at Harry with a calculating gleam in his eyes. "I have a book or two that I wouldn't mind sharing on the subject if you get into a House that would appreciate it."

"I'm afraid I don't quite follow." Harry was extremely grateful that many of the people in World of Warcraft had noble speech patterns, even if the players didn't.

Blaise smirked and looked at the boat where Ronald was desperately trying to get Harry's attention while also glaring at everyone in the boat with him. "People like that Weasley over there end up in Gryffindor; most of them are loud and quick to judge others without facts. Hufflepuffs are quiet and tend to stay out of the way, they don't like to rock the boat nor do they do anything that makes them stand out from the pack." He looked back at Harry and smiled, showing off slightly sharp teeth. "Ravenclaws are always after knowledge and will do anything they have to do to learn everything. Slytherins are similar but anything we learn we use to help ourselves, we don't just learn things for the sake of doing so."

"So sure that you'll be in Slytherin?" Ronald had claimed that he was going to be a Gryffindor and now Blaise claimed to be a Slytherin, did it really matter what you thought you were going to be.

Daphne smirked, the first facial change she's made and looked at Harry with a sense of approval. "We would all like to be in Slytherin, our families have mostly ended up in that House, but anything could happen. I am certain though that my family would pull me out of Hogwarts if I ended up in Gryffindor, even Hufflepuff would be better."

Further conversation was put on hold as the boats moved into a large cavern that ended up leading right up to a staircase with an extremely large door at the top. Most of the children made it out of the boats in one piece, Ronald stumbled out in an attempt to get closer to Harry too quickly and another boy rushed forward to catch a rather disgruntled looking toad right before a very stern looking woman entered through the large door. "Welcome to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…"

{W}

"We are very sorry for all the pain and suffering that you have been put through Lord Black. Is there any way that we can help you to make up for at least some of what we have caused?" Fudge looked at the man that many had feared after his incarceration and had idolized before that. He had been cleaned and re-clothed and you could almost see what he had been before but it was obvious in his shadowed eyes that Azkaban had not been kind.

Sirius looked up from his provided robes and looked the Minister up and down. This man had come by frequently to gloat over his sentence and how much he deserved everything and now he was free because of this same man. Of course, Sirius knew better than most how important it could be to hide behind another personality when eyes were on you. It was one of the reasons that he had wanted to get away from his parents so badly in the first place. The Potters were refreshingly honest about themselves even though James' mother was a Black by birth. "The only thing that I want is custody of my godson and all of my things returned to me."

"Harry is already in Hogwarts but I'm sure that getting custody switched over will be a simple matter and all of your vaults and properties are already being switched back into your name." Fudge looked toward the door that separated the rooms they were in from the hall that was no doubt filled to the brim with reporters out for blood. "I know that you haven't had any time to rest but the reporters that always haunt the Ministry are no doubt crowding around the entrance hall to assault anyone that walks through about the emergency meeting of the Gamut that I called for your trial. I can try to put them off for now but they tend to get rabid the longer that they have to wait for their stories." Fudge couldn't quite control the flinch as he thought about the Daily Prophet's most popular and bloodthirsty reporter, Rita Skeeter.

Sirius managed one of his infamous bark-like laughs and looked to the door with amusement. "I have quite a bit to say to them and I was born a Black whether I like it or not." At Fudge's look he let a rueful smile cross his face. "A Black never appears weak no matter the circumstances, we never back down and we never let an opportunity to get one over on our enemies pass us by. I was put into prison because of someone that I trusted with everything, my godson suffered because of that very same person and I will not stand for it."

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	9. A Sorting

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or World of Warcraft.**

**Hopefully I will get past the beginning of Hogwarts soon so that more WoW can get added in.**

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Harry glanced around the Great Hall with very little interest, it didn't really stack up to some of the places in World of Warcraft and it actually seemed a bit like they were trying too hard, though the ceiling was a nice touch. The other first years seemed sufficiently impressed other than the ones that he had ridden the boat with and a couple others that were probably pureblooded too.

Harry almost lost it when the woman who had given the welcome speech, Ms. McGonagall, if he remembered right, pulled out a patched up looking hat and told them that they would be put into a House by it. Of course he was a bit shocked when it decided to open up a good impression of a mouth and started talking. His shock managed to make him miss the first part of the sorting until he heard the name of someone that he recognized.

"Daphne Greengrass." The blonde girl from the boat walked to the hat with all the grace of a lady and perched just on the edge of the stool. The hat sat quietly for barely a moment or two before the brim opened again and it gave a shout to the hall. "Slytherin." She slid off of the stool and glided to where the Slytherin table was politely clapping.

A rather forgetful and clumsy looking boy named Neville Longbottom ended up in Gryffindor and almost took the hat with him. Theodore went next and ended up in Slytherin as well. Harry had to pinch himself several times to keep himself from fidgeting as the names just kept getting closer to his own. He was so concentrated on it that he almost missed it when it was called. "Harry Potter."

Harry took a deep breath and walked up to the stool as calmly as possible as the entire hall erupted into furious whispers behind him. He managed to keep his eyes on the hat and slid onto the stool without looking at the students that were practically leaning over each other to get a look at him. The hat was large enough that it slid over his eyes and down to stop at his nose. He was about to push it back up when the most curious thing happened, it started talking to him inside of his head. Talking out loud is one thing, talking inside his head however, was something completely out of his comfort zone, it was a bit too close to the Lich King for him.

'What do we have here? There's plenty of talent, oh yes, there's no doubt about that. But where should I put you? You're loyal and hardworking, but much too powerful to blend in with their House. You can be brave, but you are never reckless. You desire to learn everything, but you plan to use that knowledge, not let it rest and collect dust. There is much ambition in you, but you tend to put the safety of those you care about above your own far more that a Slytherin should.'

'I am here to learn about who I can really be.'

'Yes, you are a rather unique child; the things that you know already will set you apart more than anything that happened to you when you were a baby.'

"Ravenclaw!"

{W}

Harry made his way to the table of blue and bronze as two redheads that looked suspiciously like the annoying redhead from the train stood and clutched each other while crying that they didn't 'get' Potter. It was amusing if a little bit over the top. Every other table was politely clapping while most of the students at his new House table were gazing at him curiously as he sat with the other new first years and waited for the other students to get sorted.

The annoying redhead, Ronald, sat on the chair with the hat on his head for a full minute before the hat yelled out Gryffindor and almost leapt off of his head with an annoyed huff that had several of the older years chuckling. Harry turned to one of them. "Why did the hat do that?"

The older year looked at the hat for a minute before refocusing on Harry. "The hat doesn't like to be argued with. He probably tried to get the hat to put him somewhere that he wouldn't fit in at all."

Harry noticed a rather pretty girl with light brown skin looking his way curiously. She wasted no time when she noticed that she had his attention. "Hello, my name is Padma Patil, the oldest female child of the Patil family, though I am only three seconds older than my twin sister Pavarti."

Harry ignored the other children that were staring holes into the side of his head and managed a makeshift bow without getting up. "It's a pleasure to meet you Ms. Patil. I am Hadrian James Potter, only heir to the Potter family and heir apparent of the Black family."

"Wasn't Black the one that betrayed your parents to You-Know-Who and killed those muggles?" A rather thin faced boy spoke up. "I read about it in 'The Rise and Fall of the Dark Lord' over the summer."

Harry could feel his eyebrow twitch. "He was never given a trial and when I went into Gringotts this summer to access my vault the will of my parents was released with proof that he did not betray my parents, whether he killed the muggles or not is for the courts to find out now that he has to be given a trial." The boy seemed to lean forward like being closed would help him learn more. Harry sighed and figured that it would be easier to just let it go, but it wasn't in his nature. "I would suggest not relying on a book written by someone that wasn't actually present for anything that they are writing about."

{W}

Blue and bronze were a better combination than Harry thought that they would be. He barely listened to the older students who emphasized the need to keep their grades up, study often, obey the rules and never be late to a class. There were going to be tours given by the seventh years the next day, Saturday, and they were expected to attend. By the time that he reached the dorms with the other first year Ravenclaw boys he was about ready to drop. Who knew that that entering a completely different society would be so draining?

"My name is Terry Boot." The boy who spoke had longish brown hair and blue eyes, he looked around expectantly.

"Michael Corner." Brown hair, brown eyes and a somewhat distant expression on his face rounded out the slightly tall boy.

"Anthony Goldstein." The only blond haired boy in the room had eyes dark enough that they almost looked black. He had the bed closest to Harry and he absently noticed that Anthony was also the tallest and broadest boy in the room not that that was saying much with a room full of eleven year olds.

Harry didn't introduce himself again; they had heard him at dinner after all. Instead he changed into his pajamas quickly and crawled into the bed. He barely managed to meditate for ten minutes before he slipped into dream land.

{W}

The weekend passed swiftly and Harry found something else that set him apart from the other boys in his dorm, other than the whole Boy-Who-Lived nonsense anyway. He had absolutely nothing in common with them and didn't really know how to talk to them. The only other child that he really talked to was Dudley and they spent most of their time playing World of Warcraft. He did however find talking to Padma easy.

"I wonder if our classes will be challenging." Padma had latched on to him the moment that he had come down for breakfast on Monday and he saw no reason to change it as they walked to their first class, which was Potions with Hufflepuff.

"Well, Potions deal with ingredients that could explode or become poisonous if mixed incorrectly, so it should be a very challenging class. I'm looking forward to it." Harry was hoping that Potions would be more useful in Hogwarts than it was in WoW.

The walk to Potions from the Great Hall was a long one that made Harry thankful that he was in good shape and that Padma was as well. Many of the portraits lining the hallways called out greetings as they passed, some with amused looks on their faces.

{W}

The Potions room was practically empty when they entered and they managed to claim a desk in the front row. The rest of the room filled quickly with the last few Hufflepuffs barely managing to slide into their chairs as the set of doors on the opposite side of the room burst open and a man who simply had to be the Potions Professor almost stalked out into the room.

"There will be no foolish wand waving in this classroom. As such, I don't expect many of you to truly appreciate the delicate fumes of a successfully brewed potion. I can teach you to brew glory, bottle fame and even put a stopper in death." The man's eyes traveled over every student, stopping only briefly at Harry before moving on. "That is, those of you who are not the dunderheads that I usually teach."

"My name is Professor Snape and that is the only way that you are to address me. The potion that you will be starting the year off with is on chapter one of the book that you should have brought to class." His onyx eyes narrowed slightly as only a handful of students reached for their bags, Harry and Padma included. "Well, wait are the bunch of you waiting for, get out your books and begin reading! We will brew this potion next class and I will not put it off just because some of you are incapable of doing the reading."

{W}

"He's an awfully grumpy person." Padma looked more than a little indignant about Professor Snape's attitude, even though he had left them alone. "He made that one Hufflepuff cry."

"Well, in his defense, that Hufflepuff was reading the entirely wrong chapter and was trying to tell his desk partner that he already knew everything about Potions and didn't even need the class. Professor Snape was just nipping that kind of behavior in the behind." Harry thought that the man probably wasn't the best teacher but the man knew the subject. The way that he threw out questions and answers at that Hufflepuff was impressive to say the least.

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